Stock futures jumped in early trading Thursday as the market tried to recover some of the ground lost during this month’s sell-off, and investors reacted positively to earnings from Meta Platforms.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 363 points or 1.1%. S&P 500 futures gained 1.7% and Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 2.3%.
Shares of Meta surged more than 16% following a beat on earnings but a miss on revenue, a sign that investors may see signs of relief in the beaten-up tech sector. Shares were down 48% on the year heading into the results.
Meanwhile, shares of Qualcomm gained more than 8% in extended trading on the back of strong earnings, while PayPal rose 2.8% despite issuing weak guidance for the second quarter.
“I think a lot of people want to believe that earnings are going to pull us out of this, but earnings are not what got us into this,” SoFi head of investment strategy Liz Young told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Wednesday. “But the reality is there are so many macro headwinds still in front of us in the next 60 days that the market is just hard to impress.”
The premarket moves followed a volatile session Wednesday that saw the Nasdaq Composite stoop to its lowest level in 2022, as stocks looked to bounce back from a tech-led April sell-off.
Stocks have struggled this month amid concern over higher interest rates and rising U.S. inflation.
The S&P 500 was down 7.7% for April — on pace for its biggest monthly decline since March 2020. The Nasdaq Composite has lost more than 12% since the start of April and is headed for its worst one-month performance since October 2008. The Dow has been the relative outperformer, losing about 4% this month.
Investors are awaiting big tech earnings on Thursday from Apple, Amazon and Twitter, along with results from Robinhood. Jobless claims are also due out Thursday.
